Cavalry conversion help/ideas?

[FramFramson]

I'm trying to do up a unit of vampire elf light cavalry. They are meant to represent the "young bucks" of the vampire regime. I will need 8-10 of them (probably 10 mounts, and 8 riders - there are 8 regular cavalry and 1-2 heroes).

I am trying to go for a look that is less, well, florid than is usual for Dark Elves or Vampires while still retaining its own identity. I am aiming for a 17th century eastern European/Balkan flavour for most of the "regular" vampire forces (the heroes will do their own thing, but many of them will have some of that flavour there too) and the cavalry essentially fills the role of uhlans or polish hussars. So medium-armoured lighter forces, perhaps with helms, breastplates, and some additional bits of armour, but not full plate.

I had a mind to use the mounts from the GW Marauder Horsemen box set with the riders (specifically using the open, armoured helmets) from the GW Dark Riders box set. Those horses still look more-or-less natural, but with the silly mean touches an eager young fella might add to his ride.

I figured both boxes are in print and current, so it's just a matter of buying the bits. Their being all plastic makes modding easier, so that was a nice bonus (I had the old GW metal Dark Riders and they were no good for this project).

Wrongo. I can get the ponies, no problem, but the new Dark Riders set has the bodies from the waist down moulded right onto those ghastly dark rider horses (they look starving and rabid, not menacing!).

Now I'm not sure I want to buy an entire dark riders boxed set just to crudely carve legs off horses (and they have kind of a goofy riding position anyway), so does anyone know of some good partial plate armoured bodies that I can buy in bit form that will fit the chaos horses and some assortment of GW elf heads? In particular, they need to be swordsmen (preferably with straight swords, not jagged scimitars made from scrap orcs wouldn't touch, but that's an easy convert), not lancers.

By partial plate I mean something like I mention above: tall riding boots and a breastplate/cuirass, perhaps with with one or more accessories like tassets, faulds, pauldrons, spaulders in chain or plate. I'm flexible here - something close will do. Maybe an Empire set? Even better, it's a BIG bonus if they have an eastern European flavour, like polish winged hussars (sans the wings), or any sort of medium knights from the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth & environs. But honestly, that stuff is convertible as long as I can get a base with the right overall look.

Any ideas?

[matthais-mouse]

Howdy,

Well for bits, I can send across some GW dark elf heads, swords, breastplates and anything else you think may be useful from the standard bits as I have just finished assembly of mine so plenty of spares. Ill make a better list when home.

In regards to the horses and parts, maybe the empire outrider horses with some of the spare parts from cold one knights or even the glade guard?
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Empire-Pistoliers
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Wood-Elf-Glade-Riders

potentially the glade guard mixed with the new dark riders? of course thats if you go GW.
something like this could be achieved, http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/69972-dark%20rider%20right.html

I am currently looking at some alternatives as I am intrigued by this idea  

Another idea, maybe these could be converted? http://www.warlordgames.com/polish-heavy-cavalry-now-with-wings/

[OSHIROmodels]

How about one of the historical purveyors? Perry or Fireforge as the basis and then gw accoutrements?

The Perry figures might be a bit on the small side.

cheers

James

[matthais-mouse]

Ironically I was just reading the entries for the perry miniatures and were going to suggest them alongside my others.
Maybe the earlier variations they do for the horses?

[FramFramson]

Howdy,

Well for bits, I can send across some GW dark elf heads, swords, breastplates and anything else you think may be useful from the standard bits as I have just finished assembly of mine so plenty of spares. Ill make a better list when home.

In regards to the horses and parts, maybe the empire outrider horses with some of the spare parts from cold one knights or even the glade guard?
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Empire-Pistoliers
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Wood-Elf-Glade-Riders

potentially the glade guard mixed with the new dark riders? of course thats if you go GW.
something like this could be achieved, http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/69972-dark%20rider%20right.html

I am currently looking at some alternatives as I am intrigued by this idea  

Another idea, maybe these could be converted? http://www.warlordgames.com/polish-heavy-cavalry-now-with-wings/

The Pistoliers aren't too bad, but they're a bit too puff-and-slash and their armour is all down on their legs, which is not the look I'm going for. Armoured thighs with tall boots ECW/TYW-style would be great, but fully armoured legs with only a half-armoured torso is not going to do it. I guess maybe I could piece something together with further chopping, but that's getting less optimal (hard to cut armoured figures off at the knee to replace armoured shins/feet with booted ones and of course now I'll be buying a rather silly number of kits).

The wood elves are pretty obviously wood elves though.

Much appreciate the bits offer! The main thing I will need from actual dark elf kits is heads. I had figured on some assorted bare heads from various kits (like the High Elves Silver Helms Champion, or the bareheaded Cold One, or suchlike) mixed with one set of the armoured heads from the new boxed set, (I think it comes with three sets of heads: cloaked heads, armoured heads, and the crazy heads for the Doomfire Warlocks (I would actually like to get a couple Doomfire Warlock heads for other conversions). I think for swords I will go with the ones in the Empire State Troops box.

How about one of the historical purveyors? Perry or Fireforge as the basis and then gw accoutrements?

The Perry figures might be a bit on the small side.

cheers

James

The Perry stuff is lovely and handy, but yes, they're too small to mix with the required fantasy bits. For a long time, I even thought about getting a set of a Warlord's Winged Hussars and just doing headswaps with elves, which would have been great, but those are even smaller!

I mean, this sort of kit (minus the wings) is just about perfect:

[matthais-mouse]

Well i shall take a photo of all of the heads I have, some high elf heads will be there too and see if you need any.

As for the other info, its a real shame.

I shall have a look through the depleted bits box (lots of mine got sent in the two bitz boxes)  and see if i have any spare horses or anything of the likes there too.

I am keeping my eyes on here though haha.

[FramFramson]

Haha, it's very much appreciated!

Hopefully I'll figure out something. Been looking at the GW marauders themselves, as well as Cold One knights and other folks, but nothing yet. Wish the Bretonnians had a modern version of their old light armoured pages (were they pages? anyway...)

Looking again at the outrider legs, they might actually work, or at least not be as hard to convert as I feared. I guess if I could find suitable torsos/arms, they could do.

[OSHIROmodels]

How about the old metal pistoleers legs?

I might have a few knocking about you can have. They have tassets and knee boots.

cheers

James

[FramFramson]

Oooh! That might work out grand. Whatever legs I get, I might be able to stitch them to the current Dark Rider torsos and arms.

By the way, just to double-check, has anyone here actually purchased the new Dark Riders? If so, are they part of the GW move to freakishly large 40+ mm figures (the high elves from the boxed sets have this problem)? I might still be able to make them work, but I'd like to know what I'm up against here.

[FramFramson]

Just realized that the cloaks from the pistolier set are perfect for making polish hussar-style cloaks, especially the champion cloak.